John Ary: Peter Jackson Talks THE HOBBIT At BNAT 14!!

Peter Jackson dropped by to show us the 48 frames per second version of The Hobbit in 3D. Afterwards he took questions from Harry and the audience about what we can expect from the next two films, the technical challenges of shooting the movie, the extra footage he plans to add in on the Blu-ray and several other fun tidbits from the Shire...

Look for more Q&A sessions from BNAT 14 on the AICN Youtube channel in the next day or two and as always, you can follow me on Twitter.

*SPOILER*
So the Dol Guldur stuff will pay off in film 2? Fascinating. I love that we don't know everything that's going to be included in this trilogy yet. He mentioned the White Council kicking some ass - it's a logical next step to assume that elements from the Battle of Dol Guldur later on will be retconned into these films. Even as a fan of Tolkien I think PJ's basically established his own continuity in LotR so I don't mind the embellishment.
Interesting to hear there will be bits involving Thranduil from the Appendices as well. Cool stuff.

Now, I didn't watch the whole thing, it quickly got into spoiler territory so I killed the video, but when talking about the EE he sure seemed like that - like he was just talking business and stuff. And he warned people to not buy the first Blu-Ray "if you want the Extended Edition", rather than promoting that version even a tiny bit.
I mean, sure, he personally always preferred the theatrical Lord of the Rings movies to EE, but he still said at the time that the EE was for book fans who wanted more from the books, so fans should hold out for the EE. This time he didn't say fans should hold out for it, but people who had already decided that they wanted the EE should wait.

... which NO ONE seems to be asking. With all of the negative response to the 48 FPS production so far-- seemingly sped up motion (though Harry didn't seem to mind), fake looking sets and costumes, flat lighting, garish color palette, soap opera contrast, etc, why doesn't anyone ask Peter Jackson one question ...
... WHY he DID NOT SHOOT ON FILM at 48 FPS first? ... you know, like with Panavision or Arriflex camera's? Instead of the goddamn Red Epic High Definition VIDEO system!!!
If we want to see authentic HFR 48fps CINEMA for the first time in movie history, why wouldn't the filmmaker choose to present this new technology on FILM first!I cannot help but wonder if all the shit that people are NOT digging about 48HFR, would not have been an issue or at least would look much more like a movie, if it was simply light passing through a celluloid strip of photochemicals. Why did Jackson not test this new tech on film ... like Trumbell has for years been experimenting with Showscan. I want to see 48fps on old fashioned grainy film first, not hi-def video!
Why does NO ONE inquire about this? No ONE! Please SOMEONE ask Jackson WHY he made this decision???
So frustrating ...
WHY?

Pj's a great filmmaker, but he's human. And Hobbit sounds like an overindulgent mis-fire (keep theatrical swift and lean then save the minutiae for the expanded edition). Harry, I love Pj too, but a little more inquisitive and a little less fawning in the future.

With digital, only 1 out of 3 digital projectors needed replacing. After that 1/3, Sony projectors only needed a firmware updated, and the rest needed a hardware update, which is cheaper than replacing the entire projector. Had they used film, instead of 900 theaters showing HFR, we'd probably have like, 50 theaters.
Also, to go from 24fps to 48fps, digital cameras just need some extra storage, while film would cost quite a bit extra.

Look, I posted this same comment in Kidd's review as well, and several folks have stated good reasons why Jackson chose to shoot it this way ... but ... don't ANY of you want to see a 2D version of this on FILM? To at least compare with? Even if the projection costs are true (does make sense) could it not have been an option to see the film in a scant 50 theatres showig it in 2D HFR? No one's even a bit interested in how that might look? Especially after the abysmal reviews of the 3D HFR so far?
As I stated elsewhere, the cost of extra filmstock and processing is not a dealbreaker on a 600 million dollar production like this. It's just not.

It was crazy enough on LOTR with the miles and miles of film used. It IS a shame because, fucking hell, everything would have looked so much better on film. Half the time of post production on a digital video like this is trying to make it look like film! The other half is salvaging the damn picture, due to the extreme clarity and the 3D brightness issue. I wish things would just get back to filmmaking.

Cash Grab Cash Grab Cash Grab!
Obvious Jackson was desperate for positivity when he bowed to Jabba the Smutt at BNAT! How the mighty have fallen. The trio of Jackson, Fran and Phillipa. Thank God the Tolkien estate saw sense and refused them any further rights to his works.
Being dragged to this on Xmas Eve with family, love the books and dont want to go in to Xmas on a downer which I surely will.